The term "Technical Textiles" is an internationally recognized term that refers to advanced textiles that can be used in different applications in our life aiming at performing multiple functional purposes. Perhaps the modern industrial revolution in the field of textile manufacturing and its applications has helped break out from the narrow and familiar framework of textile manufacturing, transforming it from one functional purpose—manufacturing ready-made clothing—to a variety of functional fields and purposes that depend in their work on the mechanical and chemical properties of different textiles. (figure 1)
You may be amazed to learn that textiles are currently used to manufacture parts of the exterior body of cars and airplanes, or to manufacture heart valves and joint ligaments, or to build bridges, walls, and roofs. What is even more surprising is that the use of these textiles has extended to include paving roads and lining dams, as well as manufacturing medical drugs and artificial limbs, in addition to manufacturing cosmetics, environmental and plant preservation, risk protection clothing, sound insulation, and electronic sensors.
The manufacturing of technical textiles depends on many sources, such as carbon fibres, glass fibres, chitosan fibres, polyester, polyamide, and polypropylene, in addition to many modern technological techniques that help provide these textiles with the functional properties required to perform specific purposes. In this article, I will introduce one of the most important applications of technical textiles: protective clothing.
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Figure (1) The general division of the modern technical textiles.
Protective Clothing
It is considered one of the most prominent and widespread applications of technical textiles, due to its importance in providing protection to many categories of people in their fields of work. For example, firefighter clothing to protect them from fire, and clothes that protects those who work under the Sun for long periods of time, in addition to clothes that protect those who work in the iron and steel industry from high temperatures, as well as protective clothing against bullets and explosives, and other different fields. In this article, I will discuss one type of these protective clothings: firefighter clothing.
Given the risks and challenges firefighters face, specialists worked on producing special clothing that suits the harsh nature of firefighting. This type of protective clothing must have two basic features: protection and comfort. The first aims to protect the firefighter from the dangers of fire and high temperatures, while the second aims to provide the best comfort standards to help firefighters perform faster and with high efficiency. At the same time, these features help firefighters get rid of sweat and heat stored in their body as a result of being near the fire.
Usually, a firefighter's outfit consists of jacket and pants, which come in different designs and accessories; each piece includes three monolayers: the outer coating, the moisture carrier, and the thermal barrier. The outer coating acts as a fire resistent due to the direct exposure to flames, and also protects the inner layers from hazards and damage. The main role of the second layer is to protect the body from the hot water vapor; at the same time, it has a level of ventilation that can allow water vapor to leave the body to the outside, which provides some comfort during work. The role of the third layer is to enhance the thermal insulation feature, which reduces the transfer of heat from the firefighting environment to the body. (Figure 2)
Firefighter clothes usually include different types of woven and non-woven fabrics. Two types of fibres are used: traditional fibres, such as cotton, wool, and viscose, all of which are chemically prepared against burning; and high-performance fibres characterized by high resistence to burning, such as kevlar, aramid, poly-amide, and other specialized materials. The materials and technical textiles used in the manufacture of the three-layered protective clothing of the firefighters have an important role in influencing the rate of functional performance of these clothing. Perhaps the diversity of the the materials used in the second and third layers enhance the thermal protection role of the fabrics; protection level increases as its thickness and weight increase. Thermal insulation improves due to the mass of the stagnant air inside the thermal barrier; as the volume of this stagnant air inside the the thermal barrier decreases, the rate of protection decreases. As such, the thermal barrier layer is an important point in the design of fire-protective clothing.
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References:
فوزي شريف، رسالة دكتوراة، كلية الهندسة الميكانيكية، جامعة درسدن التكنولوجية، ألمانيا، 2011.
Sherif. F. (2016). New Prospects to Enhance the Commercial and Economical Status in Textile Industry, International Design Journal, Vol. 6. Issue 1.
فوزي شريف، دراسة الملابس الوقائية لرجال الاطفاء و لعوامل المؤثرة عليها، مجلة البحوث فى مجالات التربية النوعية - كلية التربية النوعية- جامعة المنيا - مجلد 6 العدد 26 – يناير 2020.
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